Concerns over the limited supply of fossil fuels have generated a great deal of research and engineering work in the area of alternative fuel and energy sources. Additionally, air pollution produced by the combustion of fossil fuels is another area of great environmental concern. The concerns related to fossil fuels impact on many things that we do, from driving automobiles to recycling consumer products.
One (1) area that has received particular attention is that of reducing energy consumption used by illumination sources. Fluorescent lamp fixtures often take the form of troffers. Such fluorescent lamp fixtures have been the mainstay of lighting in offices, stores, schools, and similar locations for many years. A troffer is typically a rectangular light fixture that fits into a dropped ceiling grid. Troffers are usually recessed above the ceiling grid but can also be implemented as surface mount boxes. While troffers were originally designed for use with standard fluorescent lamps their widespread acceptance, modular benefits, low cost and ease of installing and maintaining have led them to be used with integral LED sources. While fluorescent lamp troffers are a major improvement over incandescent lamps they cannot compete with high efficiency LED lighting.
While LED lighting is highly energy efficient the cost of replacing existing light fixtures with LED light fixtures has been so high that many users simply put up with the inefficiencies of fluorescent lamps. Recently some manufacturers and suppliers have responded with LED retrofit kits. While such retrofit kits can be beneficial they are typically difficult and time consuming to install and usually do not afford the user with the ability to increase or decrease the number of light tubes to compensate for the increased efficiency of LED lamps.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a device by which fluorescent lamps in existing troffers can be easily upgraded to LED-style lighting troffers at low cost.